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Happy starter, almost there

June 3, 2007 - 1:04pm

Cooky

Happy starter, almost there

Onion bread: Onion bread made with semi-sour starter.

Sorry for the poor photo quality, but I'm so thrilled with myself, I had to share.

Day 5 of of my Very First Starter From Scratch, and things are going swimmingly. Started with rye, then added WW and white on subsequent days and it just keep getting bubbly and beautiful right on schedule. It also smells fine. Is that bad?

Anyway, yesterday when I was taking some out before feeding time, I thought, hm, this looks exactly like a nice healthy poolish. I know the consensus is that it should be pitched, but I figured, what have I got to lose at this point? So I used it in a small batch of wheat/white onion bread, just to see what would happen. And boy did it work.

I did add a 1/4 tsp of commercial yeast, thinkiing that the starter wouldn't be strong enough, but the dough became so springy and light I probably could have done without it. It tastes great too, with a little bit of sour tang, although not what it will be in a few more days, I'm sure.

Oh yes, TT, the onion flavor was right on. I fine-chopped a Vidalia and sauteed it in a little olive oil to get a bit of caramelization going, so the onion flavor really came through.

Next time, though, I would saute in a bit less oil, because the oil that went in with the onions (after the first bulk ferment) made the dough a little hard to handle. I'm already severely klutzo when it comes to shaping and slashing, so anything that makes those jobs trickier is problematic for me.

By the way, I also baked this bread from a cold start, and it worked great. Nice crispy thin crust, even without steaming and spraying and whatnot.

I suspect the starter is getting to the point where I probably would not want to use the discard as poolish; the smell is starting to change so it might do something wrong to the bread flavor. A few more days of tending, though, and I should have something I can use for a real sourdough!

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